New to weddings
 

I work as an in-house corporate media/videographer. I'd like to give myself a raise by doing a few weddings on the side.

Obviously I'm going to be dealing with some folks whose stress levels might be a little higher.. Since I won't quit my day job, I feel I have a little more latitude in taking on certain clients.

Is there up front advice (pro's and con's), and/or resource about the basics (do's and dont's) that you could provide?

Also, are you folks feeling the pressure to upgrade to HD? Otherwise, I may just invest in used SD/DV equipment until I feel it's worth taking the HD plunge.

Thanks.

Use what you know - if that's DV, stick with DV. Your knowledge is ultimately the more important factor in decided what you should do IMO.

I just started (still am - but so far things are going quite well) my own wedding videography company with a very indepdendent film twist. I'm doing everything in HDV - mainly because I've been working in nothing but HDV (for my last employer) for the last 2ish years. I already have or know how to use the tools, can jive with the workflow, and most importantly I have 2 years (give or take) worth of knowledge. I'd hate to be where I am now and also having the burden of trying to learn a nearly new set of knowledge at the same time (with all of the other aspects of starting a business).

Start with what you know and adapt as necessary IMO.

Makes sense to me.

You are using HDV, though I'm not up on HDV, and rather move on to HD (for compositing, etc. at my day job). I guess there's more wiggle-room in the quality department for this kind of work. But HDV is said to produce better looking SD images, and that you can use an HDV size image to avoid zooms and pans, and create that in post. Meaning that you can blow up the image 200% in an SD project without losing quality? I quess that would make a good second, unmanned cam, knowing your catching 4x the rez. Have you found this to so?

How's is working with non-corporate types? How critical are these folks about cut and quality? Do they seem educated about the technology? Do they expect high-end stuff, or is this just one more thing they have to do for the big event?

Pete

Most of the people that I talk to say that high definition is a bunch of BS and then the next day they blow 3000 dollars on an HDTV

lucky them...

put it this way, i wont be worrying about HDV or HD or DVCProHD until i can deliver said medium/format to my clients who ARE NOT broadcast related...

for broadcast, im still shooting with Z1, and transferring to DVCpro50 as component analogue (same colour sampling as HDV, but SD only)
By this , im literally playing back the HDV footge through component and capturing as DVCPro50 codec.. im not actually using DV conversion or HDV on the timeline (im using an old digisuite with Prem6.5) ... if that makes any sense..

but yeah, until joe bloggs can go down to the video shop to hire a High Def DVD, im not gonna worry too much about it..

do's/dont's
 

I no particular order...

1. Make sure you check out the regulations at the church.
2. Find out what the pastor's/priest's preference is about where you stand or the lights being on
3. Ask the bride & groom about the same above.
4. Watch out for window backlighting
5. Use good qality wireless mikes. Use two, one on groom and one for ambiance. One on each channel of imput into your camera or iRiver.
6. Have more than one camera.
7. Plan out your essential shots before hand.
8. Ask questions in this forum.
9. Get interview of the guests
10. Get interviews of the bride & goom before and after the wedding ceremony

I'll add more as I think of them
~Matt